Cancer Therapeutics: Technology, Discovery, and Targeted Delivery Program

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CANCER THERAPEUTICS: TECHNOLOGY, DISCOVERY & TARGETED DELIVERY (CT) RESEARCH PROGRAM ABSTRACT The Cancer Therapeutics: Technology, Discovery and Targeted Delivery (CT) Research Program, led by Larry A. Sklar, PhD and Renata Pasqualini, PhD, consists of a multidisciplinary team of 43 (27 full and 16 associate members) of basic, translational and clinical investigators assembled from 5 Departments in the UNM School of Medicine, 2 in the UNM College of Engineering, the UNM College of Pharmacy, New Mexico State University, and our UNM Cancer Center (UNMCC) consortium partners: Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) and Sandia (SNL) and Los Alamos National (LANL) Laboratories. CT is a new UNMCC Research Program, developed through rigorous program planning and evaluation in response to the prior 2010 NCI CCSG critique and guidance from the External Advisory Committee (EAC). Building from its origins in the Cancer Biotechnology component of the former Cancer Biology & Biotechnology Program, CT has retained and acquired scientific expertise in small molecule discovery and drug repurposing, combinatorial targeting of peptide and antibody phage display libraries, nanoparticle and virus-like particle (VLP)-based drug delivery, as well as imaging and isotopes. During the prior funding period (from 1/1/10 to 9/1/2014), CT program members published 336 original peer-reviewed articles and reviews (37% intra-programmatic and 24% inter-programmatic) and participated in 6 investigator-initiated trials. As of 9/1/14, CT funding is $16,076,676 in annual direct costs, of which $14,196,182 is peer-reviewed direct funding and $3,105,330 is from the NCI. Dr. Sklar is an expert in leukocyte biology and drug discovery and/or repurposing while Dr. Pasqualini is an expert in vascular targeting whose pivotal work in vivo with phage display has led to extensive pre-clinical and clinical applications; both leaders are experienced in translation and commercialization. CT has contributed to the bulk of UNMCC intellectual property as well as 10 biotechnology or pharmaceutical start-up companies. The Program benefits from the technological expertise in partnerships among the UNMCC, LRRI, SNL and LANL. Through the strategic recruitment of new talented faculty and infrastructure reorganization, the CT translational pipeline is expanding through: i) small molecule discovery and drug repurposing, flow cytometry technology and cheminformatics; ii) combinatorial targeting through selection of peptide and antibody phage display libraries; iii) targeted ligand-directed delivery coupled to material nanofabrication, predictive mathematical methodology, and molecular imaging; and iv) early translation into clinical application. Noted multidisciplinary, multi-investigator programmatic grants held by CT members include large NIH, NCI and DOD funds supporting translational investigations and clinical interventions. Recent physician-scientist and clinical investigator recruits will lead the current and planned portfolio of early investigator-initiated clinical trials. CT's overall goal is to discover, develop and translate innovative platform technologies into cancer diagnostic and therapeutic applications by using bioengineering, biotechnology, nanotechnology, phage display, mathematics and informatics as the basis for early interventional clinical trials.